Car-coupling



(No Model.)

M. WERNER.

' CAR GOUPLING.

No. 487,590. Patented Deo. 6, 1892.

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6 INVENTOH Br Y ,moe/Vey UNITED STATES PATENT EErcE.

MICHAEL WTERNER, OF ALLEGHENY, PENNSYLVANIA.

CAR-COUPLING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 487,590, dated December 6, 1892,

Application led July l, 1892. Serial No. 438,703. (No model.)

` To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MICHAEL WERNER, of Allegheny, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Car-Coupler, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to an improvement in car-couplers, and has for its object to simplify the construction of such devices and to render them extremely durable aswell as simple.

Another object of the invention is to construct a car-coupler in a manner necessitating the use of but few pieces, and to provide a means whereby an uncoupling may be effected from either side or from the top of the car to which the coupler is applied, and, further, to provide a meansl whereby the coupling will be entirely automatic.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of the several parts, as will behereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar -igures and letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 represents two couplers connected, one of the draw-heads being in vertical section. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section through the draw-head of a coupler constructed in accordance with myinvention. Fig. 3isa transverse section taken, practically, on theline 3 3 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is a front elevation of the improved coupler, illustrating it as applied to a car, the car being viewed from the end.

The draw-head Ais provided with the usual link-opening or flaring mouth 10 and the interior chamber 11. The interiorchamber 11 is preferably somewhat contracted near its center bythe formation of bosses 12 upon the inner sides of the head, as is best shown in Fig. 2. The draw-head chamber is further provided upon its base-wall with a longitudinal slot 13, extending from a point near the mouth of the draw-head to a point at or near the center, and the draw-head is further provided in its upper face with an opening 14, both the opening and the slot being shown in Fig. 1.

A coupling-hook B is employed in connec tion with the draw-head. This coupling-hook is provided with a tail-piece 15, which extends downward at an angle from the body portion, the angle being substantially a right angle, as is best shown in Fig. 1. The head of the hook is provided with an extension 16 at its upper edge, located about centrally of the head, and a lip 17, integral with its lower edge, the lip 17 being adapted to enter the slot 13 in the draw-head, while the extension 16 enters the draw-head opening 14. The forward lower edge of the head of the hook is circular or curved, as is likewise the forward wall of the slot 13, with which this portion of the hook is to come in contact.

At the junction of the tail-piece 15 with the body of the hook a pin 18 is passed through the body, and also through the bosses of the draw-head, this pin serving as a fulcrum for the coupling-hook. When the hook is in its normal position, the forward curved portion of its head rests against the outer end wall of the slot 13 of the draw-head, while the lip 17 of the tail-piece 15 extends downward through the slot. The lip 17 serves to prevent lateral movement of the coupling-hook at its head, and this portion of the hook is adapted to receive a coupling-link 19. The hook may be raised from the top of the car when desired by locating upon the extension 16 an eye 20, to which eye a length of chain 21 is preferably seoured, and this chain may be carried directly to the roof of the car,or it maybe secured to the lower end of a rod 22, capable of guided vertical movement, as shown in Fig. 4, which rod may be manipulated from the roof of the car.

An uncoupling is effected from the sides of the car through the medium of a shaft 23, journaled in suitable bearings 24, projected downward from the bottom of the car, as shown in Fig. 4, the shaft being also journaled in bearings 25, secured to the under face of the draw-head. This shaft at each end is provided with a crank-arm 26, and at or near its center the shaft has secured thereto a trip-finger 26a, the finger being adapted for engagement with the tail-section of the coupling-hook B.

Any approved form of tail-bolt C may be employed in connection with the draw-head.

IOO

In the operation of uncoupling from the4 sides of the carthe shaft 23 is rocked in such a inannerasto cause the trip-finger 2G to press forwardly against the tail-section of the hook B, and as this portion of the hook is pressed forward the head-section is elevated and the coupling-link is released. Vhen, however, there is no forward or upward tension brought to bear upon the coupling-hook and a link is engaged by the hook, the latter will hold the former by reason ot its own weight in aproper position to couple with an opposingr drawhead. It is evident that in the process of coupling when a link carried by one drawhead strikes the curved lower surface of the head of the hook in the opposing draw-head the link will raise the head until the link enters the recessed portion ot' the hook, when the latter will drop to its place and will hold the link within the draw-head. Thus the coupling is automatic.

This coupling is not only simple and dnrable, butit is exceedingly economic and may be employed in connection with an opposing l13, the lip 17, projecting into the said slot 13,

and the extension 16, projecting into the opening 14, and the shaft 23,;journaled beneath the drawdiead adjacent to the projecting end of the tail-piece and provided with cranks 26 at its ends and with the finger 2G at its center for engaging the tailpiece, substantially as herein shown and described.

MICHAEL XVERNER. Titnessesz I. W. SMITH, WM. M. WERNER. 

